Overview

This open access book provides the first critical history of the controversy over whether to cull wild badgers to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in British cattle. This question has plagued several professional generations of politicians, policymakers, experts and campaigners since the early 1970s. Questions of what is known, who knows, who cares, who to trust and what to do about this complex problem have been the source of scientific, policy, and increasingly vociferous public debate ever since. This book integrates contemporary history, science and technology studies, human-animal relations, and policy research to conduct a cross-cutting analysis. It explores the worldviews of those involved with animal health, disease ecology and badger protection between the 1970s and 1990s, before reintegrating them to investigate the recent public polarisation of the controversy. Finally it asks how we might move beyond the current impasse.

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9783030191887

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This book is a history of the science and policy behind Britain's ongoing badger controversy. ... The advantage of Dr Cassidy's book is that she carefully peels back the layers and reveals the full complexity of a situation that seems to have little hope of immediate resolution. ... Dr Cassidy's style is admirably clear, jargon-free and without artifice. (Peter J. Atkins, Agricultural History Review, Vol. 69 (1), 2021)

Author Information

Angela Cassidy is a Lecturer in the Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR), University of Exeter, UK. She works across the history and social studies of science, researching public controversies and policy through an interdisciplinary lens.

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